Nutella Banana Pull-Apart Bread

The nooks and crannies filled with Nutella and banana in these single-serving pull-apart breads invite exploration.  Like a child who can't resist the temptation to pull open and thumb through barely open drawers, your eyes begin spelunking at the first sight of the pull-apart bread.  Your fingers quickly follow suit, prying the plush bread open and releasing steam studded with smells of chocolate, hazelnut, banana, and brown-sugar sweetened bread.  Pull-apart bread is fluffy dinner rolls combined with croissants with a tactile satisfaction akin to cleanly splitting take-out Chinese food chopsticks.  Add in the no-fail combination of Nutella and banana and these may be my favorite recipe of 2013.

Father's Day Banana Nut Popovers for Pop

If I had to give cupcakes a gender, they would definitely be female.  They dress up in cute liners, add frosting to give themselves some color, and accessorize with sprinkles.  While popovers are also baked in pans with cups, popovers are more like guys - they are who they are, take 'em or leave 'em.

To celebrate some of the most important men in your life, why not make popovers for Pop this Father's Day?  Of course, I wouldn't tell you to make just any popovers.  I created a banana nut popover recipe for Paula Deen that the dad in your life is “pops”itively going to love.  The popovers taste like banana bread crossed with croissants!

Head over to Paula Deen's site to get the popover recipe!

Hot Cross Buns Stuffed with Chocolate and Strawberries

The chocolate cross on these hot cross buns provides just a small hint of what's inside.  Take a bite into the hot cross buns and you'll be surprised by the melted chocolate and chopped fresh strawberries you'll find in the center.  These hot cross buns are far from traditional, but they could easily become a new tradition.  

Round Challah for Rosh Hashana

Round challah (airy, eggy, braided bread) is served on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year, to symbolize the cycle of life.  I baked round challah for the first time last year, but neglected to do any research on the proper way to braid the challah.  I had assumed that to braid round challah, I would take three strands, braid them (like I would my hair), and then coil them around each other.  It worked, but the challah wasn't all that pretty.  This year, I learned the proper technique for braiding round challah.  I also had an inspired thought: "Rosh Hashana challah is round and cupcakes are round - hey, why not make challah cupcakes?"

Mesquite Flour Tortillas

Mesquite flour (or mesquite powder or mesquite meal, as it is sometimes called) is likely a new ingredient to you.  I hadn't heard of mesquite flour before I received a free sample of mesquite flour from Navitas.  Because my only association with mesquite was the wood that we use to smoke fish and meat, I kept thinking that mesquite flour was going to taste smokey - it does not.  Mesquite flour is made from the dried and ground pods of the mesquite plant (not the bark) and tastes a bit like walnuts and caramelized sugar.  Mesquite is a unique, vibrant flavor worth adding to your arsenal for bread making, pancake making, tortilla making (like I'll show in this post) and cupcake making.

Focaccia Bread Recipe - Quick and Easy to Make

Focaccia bread seemed daunting to make. Maybe it was the fact that the focaccia bread recipe called for rolling the dough (I couldn't just stuff the focaccia dough into a pan and call it done), or maybe it was the focaccia bread's many dimples (imagine each one hides an eyeball and try to sleep at night).  My focaccia bread fears, however, were unfounded. Focaccia bread, I learned, is easier to make than many other breads and it is fast to prepare (well, fast for bread).  Because it's not a tall bread, it only needs to rise for thirty minutes. 

Dinner Roll Recipe

This dinner roll recipe was chewy and light on the inside with a crusty exterior. Yogurt gives this dinner roll recipe a bit of a tang and honey provides it with a subtle sweetness. To make the dinner roll recipe more cupcake fan friendly, I baked the rolls in cupcake tins. The rolls came out looking just like little bread cupcakes!

For kicks, you could "frost" them with some butter and jam!

The Dinner Roll Recipe

I got the dinner roll recipe from my Taste & Create partner this month, Robin at Hippo Flambe (is that not the coolest name for a blog?). Robin originally got the recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Baking Bites. I've reprinted the recipe here with my notes and the change to make them as cupcake rolls.

Makes about 12 cupcake-sized rolls

• 1 1/2 - 2 C whole wheat pastry flour (I know it's uncool to say it, but I'm not a fan of whole wheat flour. I used entirely all-purpose flour for the rolls.)
  
• 2 - 2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1 T active dry yeast
• 3 T honey
• 1 C tepid water (105° - 115° F)
• 1 C yogurt (Robin used Greek style yogurt, as did I.)
• 1 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1 1/2 t salt

1. If using both whole wheat and all-purpose flour, mix the two flours together in a bowl and set aside.
   
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine 1/2 cup flour (or flour mix), yeast, honey and tepid water.
   
3. Stir well and let stand for 10 minutes, until bubbles form.
4. With flat beater blade or a wooden spoon, stir in yogurt, extra virgin olive oil, salt, and 2 more cups of flour (or flour mix).
   
5. Gradually mix in remaining flour until you have a soft dough that pulls from the sides of the bowl.
   
6. Turn out onto a floured counter and knead by hand or use the dough hook attachment on an electric mixer. This should take about 5 minutes.
7. Cover the bowl with a lid or a towel and let rise until the dough doubles in size, approximately 1 hour.
8. Spray cupcake tins with non-stick baking spray or coat with melted butter.
9. Break off pieces of dough and roll into balls that fill each cupcake slot. The balls should almost fill each depression. Both Hippo Flambe and Baking Bites go into detail about how to make sure that each roll is exactly the same size. I don't really care about homemade things all being the same size. I like that people can choose whether they want a bigger one or a smaller one.
10. Cover with a clean, damp dish towel and let rise for 25 minutes. After rising, mine looked like the photo above.
    
11. Bake at 375 F for about 20 minutes, until rolls are a deep golden brown on the top.
12. Break one open and dig in!
    

Naan Recipe: If You Can Make Pancakes, You Can Make Naan

Naan is one of my favorite components of an Indian meal. Sometimes when I go to an Indian buffet, I'll hit the buffet one last time for naan only so that it is the last flavor in my mouth when I walk out the door.

What is Naan?

Naan is an Indian bread that is similar to pita, but so much better (don't even try to debate it with me)! It is traditionally made in a tandoor (a clay oven), but I made this naan recipe in a cast iron skillet.

Why Did I Make a Naan Recipe?

My Taste & Create partner this month was Heaven is Chocolate, Cheese, and Carbs (is that not the coolest blog name ever?). She had a naan recipe on her blog and I was all over it. What made picking the naan recipe extra fun was that it came from Cooking 4 All Seasons and HICCAC made it last month as her entry for Taste & Create. It's like a continuing chain of Taste & Create love.

How Did the Naan Recipe Compare to Naan I've Tried at Indian Restaurants?

I won't say that this naan recipe was better than that of the naan I get at my favorite Indian restaurant. I will, however, say that it was just as good. It was also not that hard to make. You may recall that my last attempt to use yeast was a complete failure. The failure was due in part to using the wrong kind of yeast and not warming the milk. This time, I followed directions and it was a breeze. If you can make pancakes, you can make naan.

The Naan Recipe

As mentioned above, this recipe came from Cooking 4 All Seasons via Heaven is Chocolate, Cheese, and Carbs. I am reprinting it with my notes. I also left out the sesame seeds that were in the original recipe because I didn't think they were necessary.

• 3 1/2 C all-purpose flour
• 1/2 t salt
• 1 t instant yeast (It is VERY important that you use instant yeast. I used Fleischmann's Rapid Rise Yeast which according to this lengthy discussion on Chow is the same as instant yeast.)
• 1 1/2 C warm milk - not above 100F (I wanted to make sure that temperature didn't lead to problems so I used a meat thermometer and tested the milk temp before use. I made my milk 90 degrees.)
• 1 t sugar
• Butter to taste

1. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the milk.
2. Let rest approximately 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour with the yeast/milk mixture.
4. Mix in the salt.
5. Knead until soft and elastic.
6. Cover with a damp towel and leave in a dark place to rise until doubled, about two hours. (Am I the only one who can't tell when dough has doubled? It looked bigger so I went with it. Maybe I should measure next time?)
7. Remove the dough from the bowl, degas gently then divide into ten even balls.
8. Roll out into triangles, dusting lightly with flour as needed. I discovered that the thinner you roll it out the better. (Being the non-perfectionist that I am, I did not make triangles. I made whatever shape things happened to roll out into - mostly amoeba shaped blobs.)
9. Heat up a frying pan. (I used a cast iron skillet. I also liberally buttered the skillet.)
10. Generously brush one side of the dough with water and begin to cook with that side down on medium heat.
11. Brush the other side with water.
12. The dough should bubble a bit as it cooks. Leave it on the heat for a few minutes, then flip it to cook the other side for a shorter amount of time.
13. Move to a plate.
14. Generously butter. Enjoy.

Will There Be Naan Cupcakes?

There will not be naan cupcakes, but there will be Indian cupcakes. I baked them today and haven't yet frosted them. I had a few issues with them, but the jury isn't out yet. I'll give the whole story soon.